


Choreography

by Eknomind



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Hugs, M/M, Minor Injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 21:54:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21906016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eknomind/pseuds/Eknomind
Summary: At Mercedes AMG F1, getting that hug in is serious business.
Relationships: Valtteri Bottas/Lewis Hamilton
Comments: 5
Kudos: 46





	Choreography

“Any questions?”  
Toto had just finished with the formal part of the day’s briefing with the team and most of the team were already halfway out of the door.  
Lewis raised his hand. Toto nodded, urging the driver to speak.  
“What does it mean that my entire day has been allocated for PR practice?”  
Valtteri glanced at his schedule.  
“Hey mine too. What is this?”  
Toto smiled and rubbed his hands together. The boys were going to love this.  
“Liberty wants to get the post-session interviews done faster. That means less time for celebrations- or so they think. But this is Formula 1 and we are known for efficiency, so we are going to squeeze in some of our famous ‘teamwork makes the dream work’ attitude whether they like it or not.”  
Both drivers stared at him, clearly not having understood a single word of his well-practiced speech. Toto sighed. The simple way then.  
“We’re going to practice speed hugging.” The effect was immediate, with wide grin spreading on Lewis’ face and Valtteri blushing bright pink. Toto gestured towards the door.  
“We have everything waiting for you downstairs.”

The trio entered a large space that was set up like the area below the podium, some mechanics and cafeteria workers cheering behind fences while some of the pit crew stood next to three cars, helmets peeking from the cockpits. One of the cars had a driver sitting on a tyre while the two others were unmanned, sporting Lewis and Valtteri’s numbers.   
“These two are last season’s cars, I’m afraid, but it is essential that you two practice with the halo,” Toto introduced them to the scene. “Esteban here is going to have one of our older cars and work as a distracting third place finisher.”  
Esteban waved at them from his car.   
“We also have a couple of FIA officials,” engineers with amused grins and “HELLO my name is FIA” stickers on their chests raised their hands, “and Paul here is going to try to get the interview before you get your hug.”  
Paul stood next to some chairs that had cardboard signs with the numbers 1, 2 and 3 drawn on them, holding a microphone.   
Lewis whistled. “You’ve put a lot of work into replicating this.”  
“Everyone here is very enthusiastic about this project. We take our PR very seriously. This just might be the winning strategy.”  
“Assuming that we win first,” Valtteri offered his input.  
“Go suit up, mr. wise guy,” Toto retorted and pushed Valtteri towards a side room.

“One-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight,” Toto counted rhythmically and the team started pushing the cars towards the numbers assigned to them. Valtteri followed the shutdown protocol on the steering wheel and the light on his “dashboard” turned off, giving him permission to move to the next stage. He fumbled with his helmet for a second longer than he would have liked, pushing it on the body of the car. He was already behind when he got to his headrest, throwing it out and grabbing the halo and pulling himself over it, barely avoiding a faceplant just to see Esteban chatting with Lewis. He had missed his chance.  
“Cut!” Toto yelled. “Valtteri what was that? Your foot almost got caught on the halo! We don’t want to see any injuries today. And don’t throw your headrest, it looks terrible on tv. You finished second, you can’t act like a hangry toddler.”  
Valtteri rubbed his face with his hand.  
“Sorry Toto.”  
Toto checked his stopwatch. “You need to make it out in less than ten seconds to beat Esteban.”  
“What’s my current time?”  
“Seventeen point six.”  
Valtteri thought back to the previous attempts and shook his head.   
“With everything going perfect I could do maybe fifteen. Maybe.”  
The FIA engineers buzzed over his statement for a moment before coming up with a suggestion.  
“What if instead of trying to make Valtteri faster we made Lewis slower?”  
“What do you suggest?”  
“Maybe he could spend a couple of seconds wiping his eyes, being emotional. The audience will love it.”  
Toto nodded thoughtfully.  
“I like it. Okay everyone, reset and get ready to go again.”

On the third attempt his helmet came off smoothly, headrest following suit. Valtteri wiggled from under it, placing it back in the cockpit. He grabbed the halo, seeing that Lewis was only a couple of seconds ahead of him. He had a chance! Ignoring all the aches in his body he pushed with his feet, sliding his hip over the smooth surface and bending his knees. One of his feet met the floor as planned but the other got caught, ankle twisting and causing him to come down into a pile next to his car. To his credit Lewis didn’t wait for Toto’s permission before running to Valtteri’s side.   
“Oh my god! Are you okay?” He grabbed Valtteri’s shoulders, helping him sit against the sidepod of the car. Valtteri cursed in Finnish, earning a stern look from Toto who kneeled next to Lewis. He looked at their worried faces and nodded, wondering how bad his tumble must have looked.  
Wincing as he put weight on his twisted ankle Valtteri pulled himself up from the floor. His body felt tired and absolutely battered, having hit his body on all kinds of sharp edges of the car he didn’t even know it had trying to make up for lost time messing up the shutdown protocol or fumbling with his helmet. Toto of course noticed.  
“Take a 30-minute break everyone. Strategy team, I want something new when you come back, the current system isn’t working,” he said, addressing the crowd and then turned back to his drivers. Together Toto and Lewis helped Valtteri get seated on one of the chairs that acted as signs and lifted his twisted ankle up on another. His protests went ignored when Lewis took out his racing shoe and fireproof sock to see the damage.  
“Told you it’s fine.”  
“And I told you ‘no heroics today’,” Toto reminded him, but sounded worried rather than angry.   
Lewis poked his ankle with his finger.  
“Does this hurt?”  
Valtteri shook his head.   
“Only when I do this.” He demonstrated the movement with his foot. ”Well, doctor Lewis, what’s the verdict?”  
“It doesn’t seem badly hurt but we should probably put a bandage on it just in case. Also ice while this break lasts.” He patted Valtteri’s leg. “And no more stunts like that, okay?”  
“Okay.”

“You have goosebumps.” Lewis’ fingers were ghosting over Valtteri’s skin. Valtteri groaned.  
“Stop playing around and put the damn bandage on.”   
Lewis pushed the leg of Valtteri’s overalls further up to get more room to work.  
“Woah I didn’t expect this much hair.”  
“It’s my winter fur,” Valtteri joked and rolled his eyes. “Get on with it.”  
“Okay okay!” Finally Lewis put the end of the bandage against his skin and held it in place with one hand, rolling the rest of it with the other, covering the end quickly to make sure it stayed in place. His fingers pressed and brushed against Valtteri’s skin, the electrifying touch raising hairs all the way up his spine until Lewis came to the end of his bandage roll and attached it securely, taking his hands off.  
“There, all done. Or the best I can do at least.” Lewis smiled up at him and all Valtteri could do was stare back, feeling dazed. Valtteri was bruised and sweaty but at the same time all the hairs on his body were pointing up as he stared into Lewis’ eyes, the other man still smiling at him. He took in all the details, for once not covered by his racing helmet. His skin was smooth and there was a gap between his upper teeth. Valtteri blushed when he caught himself staring at Lewis’ mouth and he looked away. Lewis made a noise as if to say something, but then Toto entered the room with noise and grand gestures.  
“I managed to find some ice from the kitchen,” he exclaimed and presented a plastic bag that was indeed full of ice. He wrapped the bag in a towel and passed it to Lewis who didn’t hesitate to press it against Valtteri’s foot. The Finn shivered under the cold, trying to escape, but Lewis pressed down harder, forcing him to stay in place.  
“Sadist,” he whispered.  
“Baby,” Lewis responded and showed his tongue very childishly. “I’m the one who has to hold this thing so stop complaining.”  
Toto cleared his throat to interrupt their bickering.  
“Boys, remember the theme of the day,” he scolded the pair. “Now say it for me.”  
Both looked at him and then at each other to make sure that they wouldn’t be left alone doing this. Ever the competitive spirits.  
“Teamwork makes the dream work,” they said at the same time, still keeping careful watch over each other. Toto crossed his arms, not content with the performance.   
Valtteri beat Lewis to being the bigger person and looked him in the eye, sweetest of smiles playing on his lips.  
“Thanks for patching me up Lewis.”  
Lewis conjured up an equally big smile, taking one of his hands, that just happened to be cold from holding the bag of ice, and putting it on top of Valtteri’s. Valtteri didn’t flinch.  
“Any time Val. Though I hope that there won’t be need for it.”  
Toto turned his focus on his clipboard, confident that his drivers could behave for the remainder of the break.

The strategy team had indeed come up with a new choreography during the break. Or as they said it -   
“Based on the data from the previous attempts and assuming that the cars do the victory lap closely together we have reached the conclusion that we could safely achieve the necessary time reduction for car number two if the driver keeps his helmet on.”  
Lewis and Valtteri blinked at them.  
“What?”  
“Valtteri, keep your helmet on,” Toto explained.  
All drivers climbed into their cars and the mechanics helped them with their seatbelts.   
Toto counted again, clapping along with the rhythm. The cars started moving and some comedian put on a classical waltz. The drivers had kept their visors open and Valtteri could hear Lewis loudly protesting the choice.  
“That doesn’t even go with Toto’s rhythm!”  
He muffled a laugh and focused on the task at hand as his car got closer to his sign, jumping on the brake pedal and stopping perfectly on the spot. This time he skipped taking off his helmet as per instructions which made him more top heavy than he had anticipated. He decided to for once follow Toto’s orders and just climb over the halo slowly but more safely. He found himself standing between his and Lewis’ cars while Lewis was still fiddling with his headrest and Esteban was inspecting the rear of the “winning” car much like a certain German might do. Lewis climbed over his halo, standing on the sidepod of his car. Valtteri realized the music was still playing. Smiling to himself, he offered his hand to Lewis, helping him down and into his waiting embrace. They swayed on the spot in rhythm with the music. Lewis smiled, his eyes lighting up, looking at Valtteri like he was the best thing in the world. His hand found its way on the side of Valtteri’s helmet, caressing it softly. Valtteri would have blushed and shied away under the adoring gaze without the extra layer of protection. Lewis seemed to have realized this as well, reveling in the intimacy until Paul, with the help of an engineer with a FIA tag pulled them apart, forcing Lewis to move in front of the cars for an optimal interview position.   
Toto called for them to stop and the music cut abruptly. He reviewed the times on his clipboard and smiled.  
“Great job guys! Valtteri had 1.4 seconds to spare. Also great initiative with the hand, teammates helping each other exactly what we want to see.”  
Valtteri simply nodded behind his half-closed visor.   
“No more dancing though,”Toto chastised but smiled all the same, “We’re not Red Bull.”  
Lewis leaned closer to Valtteri, smirking. “I wouldn’t mind another dance in private,” he whispered causing the Finn to blush behind his visor.   
Loud clapping snapped the drivers’ attention back to their boss.  
“Let’s go again. We did it once, now it’s time to perfect this strategy,” Toto yelled.  
Lewis and Valtteri groaned in unison.

**Author's Note:**

> I found this in my pile of unfinished fic and it was very easily finished. Yay content!


End file.
